Trump Used Presidential Seal at His Multi-Million-Dollar Dinner with Crypto Investors Despite White House Saying It Was a Private Event

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump used the presidential seal at his multi-million-dollar dinner with crypto investors despite the White House saying it was a private rather than official event

President Donald Trump used the presidential seal at his multi-million-dollar dinner with crypto investors despite the White House saying it was a private rather than official event.

Attendees at the Trump National Golf Course Washington D.C. in Sterling, Virginia, paid an estimated $148 million in total to meet Trump, according to crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital.

About 100 protesters across the street from the golf course held signs with messages such as "Stop Crypto Corruption" and "Release the guest list."

Trump's official @GetTrumpMemes social media site promoted the dinner on May 5, saying, the "President of the United States is having Dinner with his top $TRUMP Coin holders. Who does that? Only The Crypto President."

"This is one of the most blatant and appalling instances of selling access to the presidency I've seen," said Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

"It's not appropriate for the president to be promoting a private cryptocurrency in his official capacity. And it's certainly not appropriate for the White House to be providing any assistance with this event."

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sun and his companies - Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry - in March 2023. But under the Trump administration the SEC asked for the case to be put on hold in February to enable a potential out of court settlement to be reached.

"We're aware of the complaint filed by the SEC," a spokesperson for TRON told Axios at the time. "We're actively working with the SEC to reach a fair resolution as quickly as possible."

Sun said ahead of the dinner that "As the top holder of $TRUMP, I’m excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry."

His post after the dinner showed Trump making brief remarks next to a podium with the presidential seal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the dinner was a private rather than public event.

“The president is attending it in his personal time,” Leavitt said.

She dismissed questions about the ethics of holding the dinner for people who invested in his crypto coin.

“The president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws that are applicable to the president,” Leavitt said. “The American public believe it is absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting from the presidency.”